As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system, including computer systems, may communicate with one another according to the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) communication standard or another suitable communications standard. The increasingly larger bandwidth that is available on communications networks has created processing bottlenecks at the nodes of the network related to the processing of the communications protocol at the nodes of the network. Although a communication network may be able to transport data according to the available bandwidth of the communications network, the processors at each node of the network are not able to perform the protocol processing of the data of the communications stream as quickly as the data is transmitted or delivered at each network node. One option for managing the inability of a network node to quickly process the data of the communications stream is to offload the protocol processing to an associated offload engine for processing.
Any of several distinct types of offload processing types may be employed. It is often the case that one type of offload processing is typically applied to the connection without regard to the application associated with the network connection, the port of the connection, or the traffic priority of the connection. Because the selection of the offload processing type is not tailored to the parameters of the connection, the selection of the offload processing type is rigidly applied and may not be suited to optimize the operation of the communications network or the operational goals of the administrator of the network.